Today is the Super Duper Blue Red Full Eclipse Partial Eclipse Moon, depending on where you may be viewing from.

Three years ago this day was my last day of working and I retired after 46 years of full-time work. I've enjoyed every single moment of my retirement since then - three years and hoping for twenty more, we'll see how things go...

February and March can be cruel months in southeastern Wisconsin where I live. January itself was nutso here weather-wise, with two separate thaws. I don't ever remember getting two January thaws before, and many years none happened at all.

Before I know it I'll be headed to Las Vegas to visit my friends and celebrate some sunshine and warm weather, and see a show (I always try to squeeze one in). Meanwhile, I am continuing, slowly, to make this smaller retirement ranch into a home that makes me smile in every room. I still have lots to do, including major painting projects. I keep putting them off. Seems at 66 I'm not so keen on painting as I was at 36. Gee, I wonder why...

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Still alive, still here. I have much to catch up on here and I will. Just wanted to let you know that I purchased a "Shezebo" to anchor a chunk of my ginormous blob of concrete in the backyard.

I was inspired to call my gazebo a Shezebo because it will be my private get-away that will keep me safe from bugs (I'm one of those people with bug magnet DNA, sigh), and I think the FYE Network show "She Shed/He Shed" is so darn cute! Lots of inspiration there for design ideas.

It should be delivered shortly after 4th of July. Here's a photo, it's a 10x10. For aesthetic/size reasons (in relation to size of house and size of yard), I didn't want to go with anything larger. It will (as you can see from the sale image below) hold seating for 4 comfortably or a nice dining table.

It comes with mosquito screening and a second "rod" for privacy curtains -- but if I want to install them at some future point I will have to buy an extra "kit" of some kind of drapery hardware that goes on the rod during construction, because once the Shezebo is put together, there is no way to detach the rod to add a drapery. Not sure I want to go that route. I may just go with magnetic rods or velcro tape to hang future curtains.

I purchased it from Wayfair. It is Sojag's "Dakota" steel roof/aluminum body gazebo, something strong and sturdy to stand up to the winters in SE Wisconsin. It is a permanent structure that will be anchored to my concrete patio. I won't have to be messing with hiring somebody to put up and take down any covering(s) on a gazebo that is not a "hard top" every season. I can't do it myself, nor would I want to even if I could!

Stay tuned. I STILL want to show you what I did in my living room, and then what I did in Mom's kitchen - lots has happened. I hope some sanity, peace and quiet (which I expected to have once I was retired, geez) will return to my life!

2017 Christmas Tree

2016 Christmas Tree

2014 Christmas Mantle/Mantel

2014 Front Porch

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...